First ever upgrade on long haul was Emirates flight from DXB to MAN. Being a silver card holder (and smartly dressed) I went to the business class checkin and asked about the possibility of 'paying for an upgrade' - the reply ''well you can, but I wouldn't do that if I were you Sir, your flight is overbooked and you stand a good chance of getting upgraded for free' - What a nice lady she turned out to be - she told me that upgrades would be allocated once the checkin had closed and to ask the gate staff. As I got to the gate a heavily pregnant lady travelling alone (who also turned out to be a silver card holder) was in front of me and asked about her upgrade, which was politely declined. I told them without much hope that 'One of their colleagues had mentioned the possibility of an upgrade' - gate agent just smiled and changed my seat number to 2A...! and said "Need to sit you a bit nearer the front sir" I was very pleasantly suprised.
